Only in Italy is a small jar of peanut butter $9, while fresh mozzarella is $1.
Only in Italy are strikes announced in advance and always planned for a Friday, giving you the excuse to take a long weekend.
Only in Italy are you expected to drink your coffee in 25 seconds and gtfo, but welcome to linger over a meal for 4 hours.
Only in Italy do we celebrate 150 years of Unification 9 years early.
And only in Italy do you see hardcore, bad ass, religious graffiti:
Because it’s not really vandalism if you spray paint Mary on the side of a church.
Viva l’Italia!
Don’t you just LOVE ITALY! Do you miss the states yet? I fell in love with Rome when I visited…it’s a special place. 🙂 ENJOY YOUR TIME THERE!
And these are the wall grafitti…have you seen the sidewalk type done in minimum time space with huge colored chalk? Unreal….
I saw a man doing that kind of sidewalk art in the centro storico the other day. They work so quickly!
I’m curious, what do you mean with the “9 years early Unification” thing?
Quoting from wikipedia (I’m lazy, I know…):
“On March 17, 1861, the Parliament proclaimed Victor Emmanuel II King of Italy, and on March 27, 1861 Rome was declared Capital of Italy, despite that it was not even in the new Kingdom. Three months later Cavour, having seen his life’s work nearly complete, died. When he was given the last rites, Cavour purportedly said: “Italy is made. All is safe.”
Hmmm… I think wikipedia might be wrong or at least gets around the technicality by saying “despite the fact that Rome was not a part of the kingdom”. My Italian history is less than perfect, but Turin was the capital in 1861. Rome became the capital in 1870. I wish I could remember exactly why I wrote that, but I think I was merely reflecting on the fact that the process of Italian unification really wasn’t complete until 1870. In 1861, Rome was still controlled by France, and a large territory around Venice was held by Austria. France withdrew its troops from Rome in 1870, at which time it was conquered by the Italian army and declared the capital.